"I have greatly enjoyed the second blooming...suddenly you find that a whole new life has opened up for you." - Agatha Christie

Turning Back Time

04/05/2011

Many of my very most favorite memories of my Mama involve books. Our favorite time of day was when we would curl up and she would read aloud to me. SO many stories, so many worlds opened up to me. The Wind in the Willows, The Little Prince, The Travels of Babar, the Mother West Wind series, all the Little House on the Prairie books. Little Women. Oh! Little Women. I'll never forget when Beth died. Mama and I held each other and cried and cried. We loved Little Women so much we read the sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys right away.

Actually, Mama and I cried quite a bit. We must have read Charlotte's Web three or four times, crying like fools every time Charlotte died. And...Wilbur was "Some Pig" and...Charlotte's babies hatched and...oh my, I'm crying right now. I'm a doof. We tried to read Bambi twice (the original that the Disney movie was based on), but every time we got to the part when Bambi's mother was killed by hunters, we had to stop. We never did finish the thing.

I truly cherish those moments with my mother. I realize now that she loved it absolutely as much as I did. Not just the stories, and the adventures, but the quiet snuggling togetherness.

The first time I read a book to Jude, he was about 12 hours old. A friend had visited the hospital and left a copy of Cat in the Hat for Jude. I propped him in the crook of my arm and read it aloud, carefully showing him all the pictures. I swear to God, the child payed attention. Since then, I have read to him every night. EVERY night, except for the rare times I leave him with someone. It's so completely part of our life that we're more likely to forget to brush our teeth at night than to forget to read.

But sadly, Jude has very little interest in any of the books that Mama and I read together. I guess they were mostly "girly" books. He did enjoy Stuart Little. And of course Babar. But that's about it. I tried my much beloved Little House books, but about a third into Little House in the Big Woods, when Pa killed a bear and made use of all the bear parts, and Laura and Mary went out to play with their new ball made out of a bear bladder...Jude sort of lost interest.

Luckily, we have found lots of other books to pour through, that Mama and I somehow missed. Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, The Hardy Boys. And of course our recent Harry Potter binge.

But one series of books that Mama and I adored that Jude and I ALSO adore are the Little Bear books by Else Holmlund Minarik. We even have my old and much loved edition...

Jude loves that inside the cover you can find this...

Little Bear, Father Bear Comes Home, Little Bear's Visit, Little Bear's Friend. I love these books more than I can express, and Jude and I have read them over and over. Of course, now he can read them himself, but still occasionally likes me to read one to him. For those of you who only know the Little Bear stories from the cartoon show, you're really missing out. The beauty and tenderness of the book is competely lost in the tv show, and one of the best things about the books are Maurice Sendak's perfect illustrations. Minarik's writing is tender and warm and funny. Every time I read Little Bear (An I Can Read Book) I feel like I'm getting a hug from my late Mama. And like she's giving Jude a hug too.

"Little Bear," said Mother Bear.

"Yes, Mother," said Little Bear.

"You are not asleep," said Mother Bear.

"No, Mother," said Little Bear. I can't sleep."

"Why not?" said Mother Bear.

"I'm wishing," said Little Bear.

"What are you wishing for?" said Mother Bear.

"I wish that I could sit on a cloud and fly all around," Bear," said Mother Bear.

"You can't have that wish, my Little Bear," said Mother Bear.

"Then I wish that I could find a Viking boat," said Little Bear. "And the Vikings would say, 'Come along, come along! Here we go. Away! Away!'"

"You can't have that wish, my Little Bear," said Mother Bear.

"Then I wish I could find a tunnel," said Little Bear. "Going all the way to China. I would go to China and come back with chopsticks for you."

"You can't have that wish, my Little Bear," said Mother Bear.

"Then I wish I had a big red car," said Little Bear. "I would go fast, fast. I would come to a big castle. A princess would come out and say, 'Have some cake, Little Bear', and I would have some."

"You can't have that wish, my Little Bear," said Mother Bear.

"Then I wish," said Little Bear, "a Mother Bear would come to me and say, 'Would you like to hear a story?'"

"Well," said Mother Bear, "maybe you can have that wish. That is just a little wish."

"Thank you, Mother," said Little Bear, "That was what I really wanted all the time."